TikTok is once again getting a last-minute reprieve.
President Trump on Tuesday said he’ll likely extend the deadline for China-based ByteDance to sell off the short-form video app before it’s set to go dark on Thursday, according to Reuters.
Trump also told reporters on Air Force One that he believes a deal to sell TikTok will eventually materialize and that Chinese President Xi Jinping will ultimately sign off on it.
This will be the third time Trump has extended the TikTok sales deadline. The app briefly went offline in January just before Trump took office, before he pushed the date to April as negotiations around a sale continued to drag on.
He signed a second executive order extending the deadline again in April, but that expires Thursday.
Trump initially called for a ban on TikTok during his first term in office but changed his stance during the 2024 election, saying that it serves as a bulwark against Meta’s (META) social media dominance. Trump has a contentious history with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The chief executive suspended Trump from his platforms following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Trump later threatened to jail Zuckerberg.
In January, Meta agreed to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit Trump filed over the suspension.
Trump, however, had a change of heart on the app after crediting it with drawing young voters to his reelection effort. He went on to invite the company’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, to his inauguration alongside other tech leaders, including Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook, Google (GOOG, GOOGL) CEO Sundar Pichai, and Zuckerberg.
Congress initially passed and former President Joe Biden signed the law banning TikTok in 2024. The legislation calls for TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to divest itself of the social network. If it doesn’t, US cloud providers and app stores are required to stop hosting the service or face steep fines.
The Trump administration, however, has assured cloud and app store companies that they will not face fines while the deadline is extended.
TikTok previously tried to fight the law banning the app, taking its battle to the Supreme Court. But the court sided with the government’s argument that the app could pose a national security threat.
US officials have for years argued that the Chinese government could use TikTok to spread propaganda or gather information on US users, which it could then use to blackmail them in the future. Officials haven’t publicly shared evidence of the danger.
The prospect of a TikTok sale has garnered interest from a number of potential suitors. A group of investors led by billionaire Frank McCourt Jr. has expressed interest in buying the app, as have Microsoft, internet personality Mr. Beast, and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.
The TikTok deadline comes as the US continues to work through a potential trade deal with China following Trump’s massive increase, and subsequent pause, on tariffs on goods made in the country.
According to the Associated Press, China was prepared to sign off on a TikTok deal but pulled back after Trump unveiled the tariffs in April. Trump has said any sale would likely come after the two countries reach some kind of trade agreement.
Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow him on X/Twitter at @DanielHowley.
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